Swiss parliament’s lower house overnight on Tuesday voted against approving 109 billion francs ($120 billion) in government guarantees for UBS Group AG’s takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG, in a symbolic show of popular and political discontent with the deal.
(Bloomberg) — Swiss parliament’s lower house overnight on Tuesday voted against approving 109 billion francs ($120 billion) in government guarantees for UBS Group AG’s takeover of Credit Suisse Group AG, in a symbolic show of popular and political discontent with the deal.
In total, 102 lawmakers in the lower house cast their ballot against the motion, 71 were in favor and two abstained in the vote, held just before midnight in the Swiss capital Bern.
Parliament doesn’t have the power to stop the takeover negotiated last month, as the government had already had a small group of senior lawmakers — the so-called financial delegation — sign off on the deal the same weekend it was negotiated. That six-member body can agree to urgent fiscal matters on behalf of parliament.
Still, it stands in contrast to the upper house which had given its green light earlier in the day and demonstrates the anger among opposition politicians on both sides of the political spectrum, ahead of national elections later this year. The bill will now be sent back to the upper house for further debate.
The government had said in a statement that “if parliament refuses subsequent approval, it will be tantamount to a political reprimand for the financial delegation, with no legal effect.”
Read more: Swiss Government Set for Grilling Over UBS-Credit Suisse Deal
The lower house’s rebuff of the government-brokered deal came despite repeated speeches by senior government ministers that the UBS takeover was the best of a limited number of options. Swiss President Alain Berset said earlier on Tuesday that Credit Suisse’s “negative spiral” spurred his government into action and that together with the Swiss National Bank and the country’s banking regulator had in “a decisive manner to restore confidence.”
The politicians disagreed.
–With assistance from Bastian Benrath.
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